This invention is directed to a system and method for generating an image of a plurality of documents. More particularly, this invention is directed to a system and method for scanning a plurality of documents wherein a user pre-sets the length of a document at the scanner.
Often with conventional scanners, such as those onboard of a Multi-Function Peripheral (MFP), or any scanner in general, it is desirable to scan a plurality of documents to an electronic format, such as a TIFF format. This is typically done by utilizing page separators and/or markers between each document. However, this is a time consuming method which can cause various errors in the number of pages scanned. For example, page separators/markers typically contain other coded identifier information, such as user login information, user name, image information, etc. All of this other coded identifier information must be read first before the page separator is detected. Therefore, the processing time for scanning the document becomes long.
Additionally, difficulties are encountered in scanning multiple documents, since each separate document must be manually entered into the scanner. Typically, a user must wait for the first document to be scanned before entering the second document. Thus, valuable time is lost when many large documents are to be scanned at once.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method of scanning a plurality of documents which overcomes the limitations of the prior art, and allows a user to pre-set the length of a document at the scanner.